A Mays Landing man who was on parole for an armed robbery will stayed jailed after his parole officer found guns in the house while doing a routine check.
Jullius Bechard, now 27, had been released from prison about seven months when his parole officer allegedly noticed a gun in the home Nov. 9, 2020, according to the charges.
A further search found another gun loaded under Bechard's pillow along with drugs in the home, according to the charges.
He was sent back to prison on the violation, until he was again set to be paroled last month.
That's when the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office moved to have him detained on the new guns and drugs charges.
The parole board conducted "a risk evaluation and deemed him appropriate for release," defense attorney Yvonne Maher told the judge.
Bechard was set with a Jan. 20 release date, GPS monitoring and had a job and a place to stay in Atco, she said.
But the state didn't agree with parole's determination.
"Not being anywhere near firearms was a very specific condition of his parole, and clearly that did not prevent him from being in possession of firearms and (drugs)," Deputy Attorney General Evgeniya Sitnikova said.
She pointed out that Bechard has already been indicted on four of the 12 original charges in that case.
He also has gun possession charges dating to when he was a juvenile, according to information shared during his detention hearing Wednesday.
"There’s a theme that goes through," Judge Patricia Wild said. "He has a theme of illegally possessing firearms
interrupted only by length terms of incarceration in prison."
Wild ordered him held and questioned the decision by parole.
"It absolutely shocks me that the parole system would indicate that a person who was found with guns and (drugs) would be suitable for parole," she said. "They have a whole different standard of community security than this court does. ... Their decision to put him back on the streets carries absolutely no weight with this court."
